The Story of Us
by Kira Nightshade
Summary: True stories may not be as much fun as imaginary ones, but they are where the deepest feelings come from. Based on a true story. No happy endings guaranteed. Annabeth x Luke/Percy/Nico.
1. Prologue

"Luke Castellen," Annabeth muttered his name quietly in her dreams, "Luke, Luke, Luke."

The night was silent except her murmurs, the cold wind gently ruffled her curtains, causing the moonlight to leak into her bedroom.

"Luke…" her mouth slowly formed a smile, it was one of those really satisfied smiles, as if everything was perfect, and you could have everything you want.

In fact, it wasn't far from the truth. _He_ was everything she wanted.

"Mmm…" she hugged her pillow a litter tighter, although due to the chill air rushing in or the events in her dream, no one knows.

The wind grew stronger outside, and eat time the heavy curtains were blew closer to the alarm clock on the window still (she claimed that if she had to cross her room to turn off the alarm clock, it would be highly more efficient). Five centimeters, two centimeters, zero point five…

"Cling!" the alarm clock dropped on the floor with a loud sound.

Annabeth's eye shot open. At first that dreamy smile was still stuck on her face, but then she blinked a few times and it turned into a frown. Glancing at the environment around her, she realized that everything that had happened was just a dream. Just another dream about him.

She bit her lips and eyed the alarm clock on the ground. For some reason she just didn't feel like putting it back on the window still, so she snuggled back to bed, clutching on her pillow even tighter.

Then she made a silent prayer to no god in particular, to not let her dream about him again.

Luke Castellen, her best fantasy, her worst nightmare.

But of course, it didn't work. It never did.


	2. Chapter 1

The feeling of loss is much worse than the feeling of never getting anything at all. Annabeth knew that well enough herself.

Walking down the streets on the way to school, she sighed at last night's dream. Why? Why does it always have to be about him? Why do the dreams have to keep reminding her of her loss? Isn't the reality enough of a torture already?

"Ouch!" she said as bumped into someone.

"Seriously, Annabeth, be careful, will you?" it was the voice she couldn't be any more familiar with. Except Luke, some part of her whispered. She pushed away the thought.

She raised her head and found herself staring right into a pair of beautiful, sea green eyes, "Percy, sorry, I was just thinking."

"You're always thinking," Percy chuckled, "Seriously, don't you ever get tired of thinking, Wise Girl?"

"Maybe if you do that more often, your nickname would be something else, Seaweed Brain," she shot back, and laughed too.

"Only you call me by that name!" He protested.

"Well, it's still a nickname, isn't it?" She smiled and replied.

"Ugh, fine. Someday I'm going to come up with a better nickname to taunt you," he gave up and stuck out a tongue at her.

"I'll be looking forward to that _someday_," she said, "And for now, we are late for school."

"Really?" Percy checked his watch in disbelief, "But it's-"

"Kidding!" she laughed and started running, "Race you to class!"

"You-you-" Percy stood there for a moment in shock, then finally snapped back to reality and started chasing after her, "Cheater!"

Rachel wasn't the least bit surprised when Annabeth came bursting through the door with Percy on her heels.

"I win!" Annabeth flashed a big smile at Percy.

"You cheated!" Percy was breathing heavily too, "Next time-"

"Guys, shut up! We're trying to do homework here!" The three of them turned instinctively and saw Travis and Conner Stroll's table piled up with a bunch of worksheets and lined paper (blank, of course) as usual.

"Seriously, Travis and Conner, you guys should start writing them at home instead of playing video games!" Percy started towards their direction to help them with their work, "There is a reason why they call it _home_work." Even if Percy definitely wasn't the brightest kid in the class, the Strolls often relied on him with their school work, because real smart people, like Annabeth or Rachel, simply blame their poor grades on their lack of hard work.

After Percy left Annbeth's side, Rachel immediately turned to her. She did her best mysterious smile and whispered, "So, what's going on with you and him?"

"Me and who?" Annabeth's voice was full of confusion.

"Percy, duh. Did he ask you out already?" Rachel said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?" Annabeth's stormy grey eyes shot wide open in surprise, "Me- Him- It's not-"

"Oh, save that. We can all tell," Rachel smirked. Sometimes even the smartest person in class can be surprisingly dull.

"Rachel," Annabeth took a deep breath and bit her lips, something she always does when she was nervous, "It's not like that."

"Re-ally?" Rachel's tone was more of an interrogating type.

Annabeth nodded, and she opened her mouth to say something just when Percy returned to the two of them.

"Hey! What are you guys talking about?" Percy said, putting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. She didn't seem to mind, nor did she even seem to be aware of Percy's body language. Rachel silently sighed to herself, she couldn't believe her best friend was so dull on love.

"Nothing," Annabeth quickly answered and stuck her tongue at him.

"Just some girl talk," Rachel added, smirking at Annabeth.

"Should I leave?" Percy tilted his head sideways.

"Nah, it's fine. We're done," Rachel answered.

"So, Annabeth," he turned to the girl, "I was thinking-"

"Ding-dong!" Unfortunately, he was interrupted by the bell.

"What?" Annabeth asked, scrambling to get back to her seat.

"Tell you later!" Percy managed to say across the room while pushing through the massive mess of untidy desks.

Annabeth found herself dribbling names on the edge of her math textbook. Well, more specifically, a single name, over and over again. A name that starts with an L.

As soon as she realized that, she quickly grabbed her eraser and cleared all of it, trying as hard as she can to get the traces entirely gone. Old traces, marks, any clue of him hurt her more. Yet it was even more painful to get rid of them afterwards. The best way was simply to stop creating more.

Even if the pencil marks on her text book are now gone, everything still reminded her of him. The way the desk surfaces felt, the strange yet homey smell of the class room, and familiar sound of the tick-toking clock.

"Annabeth Chase, could you please answer this question?" The teacher's sudden calling pulled her back to reality. She quickly cleared her thoughts and looked at the white board. It was a simple math question, a piece of cake. Relaxed that she had not been caught embarrassed, she said the answer loudly, "X equals forty-three point zero five six four…"

"So, about what I was saying earlier…" Percy asked slowly. The two of them were now walking side by side down the street. Their house weren't anywhere near each other, but Percy has insisted to walk her home. There are a lot of dangerous people around here, he had said.

"Yeah?" Annabth raised her head and waited for him to answer.

"I was thinking… would you like to go to a movie?" Percy's tone was as casual as can be.

"Oh, sure," she wasn't sure why she had replied so fast. This guy was freakin taking her on a movie, alone. Does this count as "asking out"? She wasn't sure. It was always hard to tell on Percy. He's just so nice and so good to everyone. He couldn't possibly intend this to be a date. _But it is a date! Two people, alone, movie!_ One side of her insisted._ He just sees you as a friend,_ her other side argued, _besides, Thalia has gone to several movies with him too! Alone._

Ah yes, Thalia. Her other best friend that was currently in England right now. Something about a weather forecast trip? Not really the Thalia kind, but her mom was crazy about weathers, especially in lighting. She was probably Percy's best girl, um, female friend. Of course Annabeth was pretty good with Percy too, but Thalia was just a bit more open with boys.

"Really? Thanks! I really wanted to see Green Lantern but too bad no one wants to see it with me," he made a face.

_He was just out of people to go out with_, she convinced herself. "Green Lantern?" she raised an eyebrow. Superheroes, not her type.

"Aw… c'mon. Please?" Percy gave her the puppy eyes, and even though this kind of trick shouldn't be working on a fifteen year old teenage boy, there was something about those sea green eyes that made it hard to resist. Like a swirl pool, she thought. Pulling you down, down, down. So different than those icy cold blue eyes- She stopped herself right there. No, she will not think about him.

"Fine," she answered finally.

"Yes!" Percy jumped up and down like a little kid. He didn't seem to notice he series of thought going through Annabeth's. "So Saturday, one o'clock in the afternoon?"

"Mhm," Annabeth nodded and smiled at him. At that moment she realized that she had reached her house.

"Alright! See you tomorrow!" Percy grinned back and ran off like a kid, bouncing all the way.

"See you…" she said quietly after he left. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, Percy might be enough to distract her from her thoughts. Wait, did she just thought of her best guy friend as a tool for distraction? A little wave of guilt flushed through her. She slowly opened the door to her house, each footstep becoming heavier and heavier.

Percy greeted her at the movie theater with his usual big grin, his emerald eyes sparkling with excitement, and two tickets ready in his hands.

"Hi," Annabeth said, reaching into her messenger bag to get her wallet to give him the money for the ticket.

"Hey, no," Percy's hands stopped hers, "The girl doesn't pay, alright?"

"Sexist!" Annabeth made a face at him, and continued to search for her wallet in the bag, when Percy's hand stopped hers again.

"I'm serious," Percy said, "I'm paying."

"Really?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes. Since I asked you to come, I'm supposed to pay." Percy said with confidence.

"Is that another American thing I'm not supposed to understand?" Annabeth asked. Percy just smiled and nodded. Percy came back from America a few years ago, his English was flawless. Her, on the other hand, had been in a traditional Taiwanese Local school up until she graduated from elementary school. She was meant to continue like that until something happen with her graduation papers – since she had skipped a grade, it took some time for the government to approve her education level. Therefore, she stayed in a tiny American School in the same building as her old school, since it didn't require any testing or official papers like the other local schools did. In short, she stumbled across this school by accident. It turned out excellent, though. She'd always had a bilingual education and loved the American culture. Her English had improved rapidly after two years in this school, but she would still be confused about some of the American cultures.

Having the guy pay for everything, for example, was one of them.

"But it's just totally sexist!" She continued to argue.

"Just take this as a 'American Culture Education' lesson, will you?" Percy chuckled, "Seriously, I don't think I've ever met anyone who had insisted on paying."

"Well…" the movie ticket money… she could buy a new book with it… "Fine," she finally decided.

"Finally," Percy said and an joking exasperated tone. Annabeth stuck a tongue at him in return. "Let's go," he looked down and checked his watch, "The movie is starting."

Watching a movie alone with your best guy friend was weird, Annabeth decided. Her imagination had run wild. Just a little bit. Something about him suddenly leaning over to hold her hand or kiss her. Okay, maybe it was more than a little wild. She didn't understand, was she having romantic feelings about Percy? Is that even possible with all this going on with… Luke? She suddenly realized that it was less painful to think of him around Percy, even if he's not talking to her or even looking at her, just staring at the movie screen and laughing. Was it possible that the green could wash out the blue? She was stunned by herself at that thought. She had never thought that… there could be anyone but Luke. Maybe there wasn't. Maybe what she was feeling for Percy was just simple biology of a teenage girl going to a movie with a teenage guy. Blame it on puberty, she thought, and forced her focus to be on the muscle guy in the green suit flying around the sky. _Guys_, she thought, _their_ _movie choices are as weird as can be_.

Two months later, things just kept getting better.

She hung out with Percy a lot, maybe more than a normal friend should be, but she had convinced herself that this was no big deal – they were just really, really good friends… right?

"He totally has a crush on you!" Rachel said one day after Percy left early for his guitar lessons.

"No, he doesn't," Annabeth inisisted, "He's just good to everyone!"

"Oh yeah?" Rachel wouldn't give up, "Chatting for hours online after school?"

"He does multi-chatting with a bunch of other girls at the same time."

"Text messages in the same room?"

"He's just messing around."

"Alright," Rachel decided on her final card, "Movie, alone."

"He did it with Thalia too. And may I remind you, a LOT. "

"I still bet he's gonna ask you to prom."

"No way, Rach, he already has a partner, he even showed me the picture."

"What, he DID?" Rachel looked at her incredulously, trying to detect any signs of disappointment, and sighed when she failed.

Maybe there was a little disappointment when Annabeth first heard the new, but she had convinced herself that she was not going to fall for Percy. Like, never.

"Yeah," Annabeth finally replied while putting the last books into her school bag, "Now, shall we leave and stop talking about him?"

"Fine," Rachel sighed, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Annabeth really, really wished that she had listened.


End file.
